This treatment model is one that demonstrates that there are multiple factors (which is why it can also be called a multifactorial treatment model) that aid in maintaining or triggering a child’s stutter. The model reaffirms indirect intervention’s assumption that “stuttering occurs when demands for fluency outweigh a child’s capacity.” (Blomgren, 2013) Clinicians, when using this method, use the help of the parents and their own assessment of the child to determine whether or not the demands are internal or external. Internal demands are ones that can occur due to the child’s own personality, such as if they are perfectionist or if they have a hard time keeping up with their own developing language. External systems are the exact opposite in that the stress could be coming from the child’s environment, unrealistic expectations as far as their age and fluency are concerned, or parents that speak to the child quickly and with bumpy fluency. There are many different plans that follow this model, but the one that Blomgren focusses on is the Yaruss’ Family Focused Therapy plan. Yaruss establishes that the goals of this plan are to increase the parent’s knowledge of stuttering and, more specifically, what they can do to decrease any internal or external stressors that their child has (“implementing communication modifications to …show more content…
This involves “explicit, overt, and direct attempts to modify the child’s speech and behavior.” (Conture; Shenker, 1998) In other words, the direct method offers changes in the child’s behavior, speech patterns, breathing patterns, tension, and life to help rid the child of stuttering. Just as the indirect intervention method is, the direct intervention method can be weekly, complex, lengthy, and intensive, if not more so. There are usually two different ways of going about direct intervention, stuttering modification or fluency shaping. Stuttering modification focusses more on positive attitudes and making the child’s speech sound “more pleasant by increasing the child’s tolerance for communication pressures” (Shenker, 1998), just as they would face at school or possibly at home. Fluency shaping approaches generally look at how the child behaves and uses that to establish a way to change fluency first in the clinical setting and then in the home/real-world settings. Here, clinicians use a treatment plan called ‘turtle talking’ to being to simulate smooth and fluent speech. Just as the name of the plan may suggest, the children are encouraged to talk very slowly and take their time in order to speak smoothly. Once they begin to get comfortable, the clinician and parents encourage the child to begin speaking faster, towards a normal rate of speech. Another treatment plan that